Party Ideas: A Colorful Indian Inspired Bollywood Bling Party

Monday, May 31, 2010C Riches

Actions speak louder than words, but I just have to say this: Thank you my darling husband for putting up with me in good and bad times, for being my rock, my best friend, my soul-mate. For being a wonderful husband, father and a great human being. For being who you are and for your generous, kind, funny, intelligent, handsome and strong presence in my life - You truly complete me and I admire and fancy you a lot!!! - Oh, and have I told you he even does the laundry, the cooking and the washing up too?! :)

Indian Inspired Bollywood Bling Party: Party Inspiration and Printables

My husband is not big on desserts but quite big on Indian curries - and with the Indian theme, we didn't want any western cakes. Instead, we filled the table with Indian-style sweet treats and desserts - Fit for a Maharajah!! :)

Some of the sweets I made myself, like the blue Indian "truffles" (I made them up..) and the gulab jamun, and shall share the recipes with you in due course. Others more elaborate sweets such as the oriental petit fours below, I bought from our local oriental shop.

I also made all the curries and sides and mango Laassi, which is kinda of an Indian take on a milk-shake - I was very refreshing and quite thick, with real chunks of mangoes. I served them in little colored cups I bought at thrifty store!

This orange "alien-looking" thing is called Jalebi and it's an Indian sweet made by dropping swirls of batter into hot oil. It's colored with saffron but waaaay tooo complicated to make, so I bought ready-made. It's very sugary, but stays crispy on the outside and very traditional in Indian dessert tables.

And because this was a family affair, we had conventional sweets (although the colors were quite Bollywood!) for the children. We also provided scoops so they could take some home in the little party boxes and favor bags I designed for the occasion.

Indian Inspired Bollywood Bling Party: Party Styling and Decorations

By the entrance which leads to our courtyard, I placed a well wishes tree - I say tree...It was a couple of branches I sprayed silver. I then decorated the branches with some small paper flower similar to the colored paper pom-poms above the desserts table.

The "wishes" were small round cards in the same design of the party theme with a picture of myself and the hubs. Our guests were then encouraged to leave well wishes or "word of wisdom" and hang them on the tree. This makes for nice memento of the day for us...

Indian Inspired Bollywood Bling Party: DIY Party Favors

In addition to the party favor sweets, I also made some Spicy Mango chutneyfor the adults - We also had some on the day, so I liked the idea of the guest taking some home to enjoy the party a little longer!

And more party favors (bangles, papier maché elephant and watercolors for the children, Indian tea personalized with the celebration date, scented candles and soap for the adults) were displayed in clear bags and small kitsch boxes I found at the oriental store for just €1 each! The boxes looked as though they were made for this occasion, in the party colors and even had a blue elephant on them!

These party favors were displayed also by the entrance inside a small wheel-barrow decorated in the colors of the party. A small plaque read "Oriental Delights" to which I attached a silk blue ribbon.

Oh, one thing I used that made all the difference, were pieces of mirrors (I had those at home, but you can get them cut to your specifications at a DIY shop) as trays and plates to hold the food on the table. This allowed more light to be reflected and looked really stunning with candles on them too - And off course I had to have birds everywhere!!

And to complete the party scene of course, we had lots of printables decor, including a standing, printable blue elephant cut-out that I displayed around the tables - It looked so cool and was a talking point with children and adults alike!

Indian Inspired Bollywood Bling Party: Party Credits

* Party Styling, Supplies, Photography, Recipes and Printables: Bird's Party

Cristina Riches aka Bird, is the founder of BirdsParty.com. She's also a creative mom of two, published author, graphic designer, magazine editor and unconditional party lover. Her party ideas have been featured on numerous publications such as Forbes.com, CNN Entertainment, Parenting Magazine and MarthaStewart.com; and she's a regular party contributor to PBS Parents, Yum Food for Kids Magazine, Créative Magazine and HGTV.

bird, what a totally amazing party....are you taking bookings for your 7th??? i'd like to book in advance pls. everything looked so so nice in the pictures, can only imagine how wonderful it was to be there. YOU are the talented lady around here.happy anniversary to you and mr birdbecky

Beautiful decorations and yummy delights! I can't believe you didn't invite me. huhuhu :-( On another note, I can understand what you mean by running like a chicken with its head chopped off. hahaha. I am so glad you're able to share through the internet. Happy Anniversary my dear, your husband sounds like a dream prince! I am so very proud of your work. I love that Blue Truffle...send them through the internet!

Your party turned out amazing!Hey, I know this sounds kind of weird, but I noticed in my google reader that you have a CSN giveaway going, but when I click on it is Blogger says the page I'm looking for does not exist. I've had this happen on other peoples blogs, not sure what's up or if you can fix it?songberries2(at)gmai(dot)com